Juan Camacho leaves professional cycling as a result of problems with his right knee
Juan Camacho del Fresno, the cyclist from La Mancha, has confirmed his retirement from professional cycling a few weeks before the official start of the 2020 season. The Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team rider has taken this decision as a consequence of recurrent physical problems in his right knee that prevent him from exercising normally. Camacho, who was facing his third season in the continental structure of the Alberto Contador Foundation, had become the oldest member of the team.
“It’s not an easy decision to make, but last season I had some problems in this knee that I haven’t quite recovered from. It wasn’t until the second half of last season that I started to feel better, but the discomfort has never completely gone away. I can’t give it my all on the bike, the pains were sometimes difficult to bear and that’s something that in the end diminishes you psychologically. I thought that by 2020 I would be able to recover for good, but at the end of November I had again some discomfort while I was in Alicante and I started to have more clarity. I am very grateful to the Alberto Contador Foundation and Fran Contador for the support I have received during this time. I would have liked to have been able to give it back to them on the road, with victories,” explains Camacho.
Moral de Calatrava’s man had to have a strong inflammation at the Premium Madrid facilities just at the beginning of the first winter training camp, in mid-December, which prevented him from facing it with the rest of his teammates. At that time, he seriously considered taking this step. A step that was taken just a few days before the official presentation.
Félix García Casas, sports manager of the Alberto Contador Foundation’s teams: “Cycling is losing an exceptional rider, a cyclist who always gave his all for his colleagues and his team. Mentalization is so important that a good physical condition, both are interrelated. And even more so in a sport as demanding as ours. Juan has behaved in a frank and honest way, he has always made us share his concerns and his physical evolutions. It is a real shame not to be able to count on him. From here we wish him the best”.
Francisco Javier Contador, general manager of the Alberto Contador Foundation teams: “Juan is a wonderful boy, a charming person, honest and with integrity. He’s been racing with us for several years and has always been a great professional. He is a very well appreciated rider by all his colleagues and the staff. That is why we are more deeply sorry that he has taken this decision and I hope that he will do very well in all the initiatives he faces. Juan has thought about it a lot, it is not an overnight decision and we have to respect it. The Foundation will always be his home”.
In his two seasons in the professional peloton Juan Camacho signed a fourth place in the second stage of the Tour de Normandie 2018, a fifth in the International Tour of Rhodes of the same year, a tenth place in the second stage of the Tour de Antalya 2019 and eleventh places both in the road race and in the time trial of the Spanish Championships held in Murcia. In 2018, it was also one of the mainstays of Matteo Moschetti’s success. In these two campaigns, he has been enrolled in the continental structure of the Alberto Contador Camacho Foundation and has faced 89 days of competition that total 12,836 kilometers.
“Juan has been one of the best riders I have directed these two years and I am very sorry that he cannot continue in the peloton with us. In two seasons he has not given the slightest problem. He is a very discreet and calm boy who has always maintained a very good relationship with his teammates and with the members of the team. He is an educated and quiet boy, with a big family, who always did his job and always gave his all on the bike. Many of Moschetti’s successes have an important share of Juan’s work behind them”, said Jesús Hernández, his director in the continental structure of the Alberto Contador Foundation during the last two seasons.
? Atila Madrona (1 y 2)
